Fool's Gold Machine

A downloadable project for Windows and macOS

FOOL'S GOLD MACHINE is a counter version of the slot machine aimed at revealing its essence beyond false interactions: chance. Playing the 5 levels the gameplay will be exactly the same but the around design features will slowly change, interfering with the gameplay. The aim is to make players aware of how their perceptions of interestingness of the gameplay could be affected and elicited.

Magic Interaction intends to provide a design perspective on gambling. According to previous researches, in gambling players are immerse in intense perceptive experiences that depend on game features: rules, mechanics, graphic features, sounds and rhythms of actions contribute to cognitive errors and illusions that could end up in pathological behaviors. Gamblers perceive games of chance more alluring of what they actually are, because of their apparent complex gameplay.

I decided to realize some counter-games of chance that subverting traditional design features of gambling, explore the relationship between game design and emerging play experiences. The objective is to reveal the real essence of gambling: chance controls the results of the game, not player's interactions.

For example, in FOOL'S GOLD MACHINE the experimental gameplay provides novel play experiences exploring and experimenting between gameplay and other design features of games. FOOL'S GOLD MACHINE investigates 1) how a very simple gameplay, as spinning a reel at the slot machine, could be perceived more interesting by changing what is happening around (astonishing and hypnotizing lights and sounds effects); and moreover 2) how this deep relationship is actually exploited in gambling to create illusionary skills and false complex gameplay that in fact will not affect the result of the game. In FOOLS' GOLD MACHINE, the gameplay is very simple, however the interestingness relies on in its simplicity. The experimental effort of this prototype relies in his attempt to use the gameplay to criticize the gameplay itself and to unveil the weakness of players' choices in affecting the final outcome of the game, while being meaningful for players.